So I started this on the opinion of my Dad. I was really needing to get out of YA and wanted an adult series to start and I loved this, it’s so weird and strange and abstract that I couldn’t help but love it.

Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes (Falling Kingdoms #2) 401 pages

This is just such a good example of how good YA can be. It just does the plot and characters and concept so well without making it too simple for others to enjoy. I love the multiple perspectives and most importantly the time given to each of our characters. I’ve been looking forward to continuing on but this has been a pretty hectic reading season for me at the moment and I have no clue when I’m going to fit it in.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #2) 292 pages

This was just another step up in this world. It pretty much read straight after the first book continuing on with the same story and characters. It really expanded the magic system and the characters relationships.

This is my favourite book of the month. I can’t believe that this is a debut because it’s an unbelievable piece of work. I am not a massive contemporary fan but this reminds me to keep trying because you will find a real gem sometimes.

So I have a very poor history knowledge and it’s always something I’ve struggled to enhance because I find it so boring. However, I do like learning about achievements that woman have made so this was a really counter intuitive read for me on the surface. It was written in quite a strange style but I did enjoy it and if people are interested then I would say they should try it.

Virgins by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander #0.5) 130 pages

I loved this. I loved how it was written in a Scottish accent because I’ve always had the fear of this series due to my nationality. It wasn’t written by a native and as such I was apprehensive of what it would be like. I’ve seen the first season of Outlander and planning on getting to the book next month.

Ohhh, I can’t describe how much I loved this book, it was such a great sequel and everyone should really read this series. It’s so dark and gritty and interesting and the fantasy is incredibly unique in the way it is done. Seriously, if you haven’t read this then you have to pick it up.

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #3)285 pages

This was a bit of a struggle so I’ll be taking a little break from this series. I was disappointed because I had heard so much good stuff about the witches and I never connected or loved it.

Mourning the death of his father and gravely injured at the hands of the English, Jamie Fraser finds himself running with a band of mercenaries in the French countryside, where he reconnects with his old friend Ian Murray. Both are nursing wounds; both have good reason to stay out of Scotland; and both are still virgins, despite several opportunities to remedy that deplorable situation with ladies of easy virtue. But Jamie’s love life becomes infinitely more complicated—and dangerous—when fate brings the young men into the service of Dr. Hasdi, a Jewish gentleman who hires them to escort two priceless treasures to Paris. One is an old Torah; the other is the doctor’s beautiful daughter, Rebekah, destined for an arranged marriage. Both Jamie and Ian are instantly drawn to the bride-to-be—but they might be more cautious if they had any idea who they’re truly dealing with.

So first off I’ve never read Outlander but I have seen the first series of the amazon original. I really enjoyed it and when I was at the library I noticed this and thought it would be a quick and easy may t get me into the series.

I’ve always been apprehensive of the Outlander series due to being Scottish myself. So when reading this I was surprised to see how much I enjoyed it. I really like the way that the dialect was written as it felt like a Scottish accent and it made me feel really connected to the characters and the story.

I know how long the Outlander books are but this is a really short 130 page novella but it is a really enjoyable story just following Jamie and Ian.

I really liked how there was a central story but it also had small side stories that made things really compelling. I really didn’t want to put this book down. I liked the way it was written but I also struggled with how it moved between voices; it switched between Ian’s first person, Jamie’s first person and then third person. It did have page breaks but due to being a novella it didn’t really have any chapter segmentation.

This is a really short review because with such a short story there isn’t much to talk about because it’s lovely and short. I am planning on reading Outlander really soon.

London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?

June 1812. Just weeks after her catastrophic coming-out ball, Lady Helen Wrexhall—now disowned by her uncle—is a full member of the demon-hunting Dark Days Club. Her mentor, Lord Carlston, has arranged for Helen to spend the summer season in Brighton so that he can train her new Reclaimer powers. However, the long-term effects of Carlston’s Reclaimer work have taken hold, and his sanity is beginning to slip. At the same time, Carlston’s Dark Days Club colleague and nemesis will stop at nothing to bring Helen over to his side—and the Duke of Selburn is determined to marry her. The stakes are even higher for Helen as she struggles to become the warrior that everyone expects her to be

500 pages

Published 26th Jan 2017

Must Read – 4.5 stars

Read from 24th to 28th January

So first off, if you enjoyed The Dark Days Club go and read this. It is one of the best sequels I have read and it’s a refreshing middle book in a trilogy because meaningful things actually happen rather than it feeling like filler for the finale.

So I’m really struggling to formulate my thoughts so if this seems a bit all over the place then I apologise, I’m just really quite excited. So this leads on pretty much immediately from the ending of the last book and takes place in Brighton and she really does an amazing job of recapping the last book but only when it becomes relevant. Sometimes books give it all at the beginning but in this is it only brought up when it suits the situation which is really up my street.

Helen has now had to face her Reclaimer duties and it doesn’t come naturally to her. Helen grows so much in this book as she has to deal with her new world and responsibilities. It takes her a long time to get over her predispositions but she does get there and has to understand the complexity of the situation she is in. She also builds friendships and builds people around her to act as a support making her situation more bearable. I like that she gained friends but they did bug me and it felt a little bit forced into the situation and I’m not sure I liked the personalities as much as the last cast.

Lord Carlson seems to take a backseat in this book and is replaced by Mr Hammond. Helena and Hammond are forced to work together and I actually really like their relationship and how they interact with one another.

My favourite thing in this was the story and the plot because it was the star of the show. This is one of the best and most carefully thought-out plots I’ve read in a while. The author brings together the feeling of anguish and struggle and manages to overcome these in a really amazing and interesting way. When reading this I honestly believed that the author was going to make us go through the unfavourable situations and we would just have to deal with these obstacles and to some extent we did. So much of this is dealing with uncomfortable situations and having to do things that go against the morals and beliefs of the characters and especially Helen.

So, this wasn’t perfect, I had some issues and for the most part it was how hypocritical a lot of it was and I just couldn’t understand how others did it and that was fine but then it wasn’t allowed by some. It just didn’t make sense to me and it wasn’t addressed by Helen so I can’t understand why it happened. I also had some trouble with the characters that were introduced because they were just idiots and I loved Selburn in the first book and hated him in this one. My ships and emotions are all over this place that I just don’t know what I’m meant to want anymore.

I also loved the ending to this and all the twists and turns it presented. I can’t believe I’m meant to wait a whole year for the next book.

I have to read Eon soon, I just do because I love this writing style so much.

If anyone has read this then I would love to have a conversation about it.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Pages – 216

Published – 27th September 2011

Rating – Must Read, 5 Stars

Read on 1st January

So I loved this book. It was just incredible. It is compelling and affronting all in the one story.

It addresses the cruel reality of our world and how people are affected by things that no should have to go through and puts us into that situation. Even though it is a short story it is something we can all connect with and understand and feel. And that is the most important thing…. We feel this book.

It draws you in and as it goes along you feel like you’re the one being talked to as well as Conor and that can be an extremely hard thing to do in such a small span of time. I loved the concept for the book as well as the writing, it was done in such a good way to make the story feel real because it felt like to was written in the characters own voice. Sometimes with books such as these they can use a lot of literary techniques that leaves you feeling removed and disconnected. The way this is written is some of my favourite type of writing. It is completely based around characters and their thoughts, feelings and revelations.

This book contains different tales that contain different messages while still following a central theme that then relates to the main premise. I know that this is a well-loved book and I have avoided it due to not liking anything else Patrick Ness has written but my boyfriend really wants to go and see the film so I decided to give it a go and I’m really glad I did.

The truth is an important and powerful thing and the role of the monster is a good display of this combined with the stories. I liked how it continuously built to this pivotal moment to make it mean something. It confronts the readers just as it confronts Conor and this is something we have in common.

This story and book will remain with me for a long time in that it tells a tale but is so transferrable to actions you make in your life. It calls into questions your own thoughts and feelings and as such makes you think about your actions and decisions. I would really recommend reading this book in one sitting (or at least in one day) as it is more than achievable and I really thought that it was a great way to get immersed into the story. Everyone should really read this. It can offer everyone something. I don’t really want to delve too deep into the specifics because each part of this book is important and should be discovered by the reader.

Recently Finished

So I have only seen the first season of Outlander because I’ve always been really worried about how it will portray Scotland and its history and I loved it. I also really enjoyed this book and planning on picking up Outlander soon.

Currently Reading

SO IT FINALLY CAME!!! I’ve been waiting on this for a while and so far it’s amazing. I don’t want to put it down. I really liked the first book but this is just amazing. It is just expanding the characters and the world and putting a brand new set of obstacles in the path of our cast. Seriously, if you enjoyed the first book then you need to pick this up.

Read Next

I have read about 40% of this but I just wasn’t in the mood but I’m hoping to get back around to it and finish it out before the end of the month because it’s such a short series and the witches are my Dad’s favourite so I really want to enjoy it.

Have you got a WWW? Leave it in the comments down below. If you want to keep up to date on what I’m reading then Instagram is the best place for it.

Margaret the First dramatizes the life of Margaret Cavendish, the shy, gifted, and wildly unconventional 17th-century Duchess. The eccentric Margaret wrote and published volumes of poems, philosophy, feminist plays, and utopian science fiction at a time when “being a writer” was not an option open to women. As one of the Queen’s attendants and the daughter of prominent Royalists, she was exiled to France when King Charles I was overthrown. As the English Civil War raged on, Margaret met and married William Cavendish, who encouraged her writing and her desire for a career. After the War, her work earned her both fame and infamy in England: at the dawn of daily newspapers, she was “Mad Madge,” an original tabloid celebrity. Yet Margaret was also the first woman to be invited to the Royal Society of London—a mainstay of the Scientific Revolution—and the last for another two hundred years.

This is something I picked up on a whim. It was on the new releases shelve at my library and I was interested. I had heard briefly about her in passing and from other things but never really knew her story. This seemed like an interesting and romanticised way to learn about her.

This wasn’t as good as I was hoping. It was quite weird and abstract. It was like a mix of first and third person and I had a real trouble trying to distinguish between Margaret and the author because it was just done in a really weird manner. The author was clearly trying to include Margaret’s thoughts and writing style in it so it would feel like her own voice but it kinda lost me.

I really enjoyed the journey that we were taken on with Margaret; from her simple beginning and the slight oddities that we see to the growth and hunger for more. I really enjoyed the first part of this story which was just a story about a woman dealing with her society and what was expected of her. However, she did grow to go completely against the trend and this is where I sort of dropped off.

I am trying to expand my historical knowledge and this woman clearly did so much for the time and changed the face of woman’s literature. She clearly had her faults for the time along with her outlandish dress style but I am glad to now know part of her story.

If it sounds interesting then I would give it a try but it won’t be for everyone.